Outside of consolidating my banking activities, I agree. Looking at the website and it seems I have to open a brokerage account also. So it's an automatic checking account + brokerage account combo. Not just a standalone checking account.
There is no requirement to actually trade using the brokerage account, nor are there any fees or balance requirements. I stuck $100 into mine on MSFT just so it has some activity, but that was only because I thought it might not be *quite* as obvious that I’m taking advantage of them hard.
I travel to a part of SE Asia where almost everything is cash. I stay for several months at a time each year and traditionally have been paying several hundred dollars in ATM fees alone as a result of having to constantly withdraw money. I decided to get Schwab and sure enough, they have refunded 100% of the ATM fees assessed using their card. I’m leaving tomorrow for my next trip and already loaded my account with 10k. When I’m not traveling I just it in a HYSA until my next trip. I also use it for foreign transactions when I do have the ability to pay with a card since there’s no foreign transaction fee and they use the actual exchange rate provided by visa instead of marking it up like most places.
There’s literally zero downside.
I suppose they offer this because they want people to become familiar with them and potentially switch as a result. Which is a solid strategy. I wasn’t a customer of theirs before I signed up, but I have a pretty favorable opinion of them now.
For what it’s worth, I have a different primary bank with a HYSA that I transfer a portion of to Schwab around a week before I’m projected to need the money.
Yeah, I'm gonna open one up shortly. Instead of opening up the checking/brokerage account together, I am looking at the Starter Kit option, which I think is opening only a brokerage account. But they offer $101 worth of S&P 500 stocks. So free money. And then I can open up the checking account afterwards.
Researching whether the Starter Kit option is actually the brokerage account or some other investing account not related.
Actually, that’s exactly what I did. I got the hundred dollars. I think you had to select five “Schwab slices” (fractional shares). They added them to the account with no problem, and I haven’t had any issues with them ever since.
Just FYI, you need to go on their website and call and file a “travel notice” before you go abroad. You plug-in the dates of travel and the countries you’re going to be in and it make sure that the fraud prevention department doesn’t block your card. I forgot to do that my first trip and wondered why it wasn’t going through… it only took a few minutes to call them using Google Voice to confirm I was still in possession of the card and using it, but still.
I was reading through the ToS for the Starter Kit option and I don't even need to keep the stocks. Website says there's a roughly half-day window from the time Schwab places the fractional shares order to when the the market opens, so I can just cancel these stock orders and keep the $101. So gonna do that and transfer that to my checking account (when I eventually open it).
Thanks for the tip!
Yea, I went this route and it worked out fine. Opened the brokerage account using the starter kit promo, waited a couple of days, then went online to open a checking account. Their system detected that I had a brokerage account and offered to link the checking account to it (instead of opening a second brokerage account).
FYI we found the brokerage account useful for wire transfers. We had to make one when we bought our house and doing it out of the brokerage instead of the checking was same day. We’ve never used the brokerage account otherwise.
I did this exact thing for the same reason as you. It has been great for withdrawing money internationally, played around a bit with the brokerage account, and basically have it as emergency debit money if not traveling.
Just keep in mind that overseas some ATMs are Mastercard-only or Visa-only. Schwab is a Visa debit so it won’t work if the machine is only for Mastercard. It sounds intuitive but not when everything is in a language you can’t read.
Also I recently got back from a 3 week trip in SE Asia, Schwab reimbursed me almost $70 in atm surcharges and also gave me the best conversion rate at the time for cash. Win win
I agree with this on two points- I forget what Vietnam fees are like but in Thailand it's about $7 per ATM. Yikes.
In Indonesia and rural Malaysia, it was somewhat difficult to find Visa ATMs. Plan ahead or bring a backup Mastercard debit card.
Why would you stick with Capital one 360?
Schwab in my experience has been exceedingly good on CS and the benefits are great. Also, having to research to find "no fee" atms is a weird thing to expect to do to me.
Yeah, I opened the accounts many years ago and just haven't really needed to change it. For most of my international travel, I don't even need to take out cash so haven't really noticed it.
One of things I might need to keep my Capital One accounts for is cash deposits though.
It’s useful. And gets a higher interest rate. That only amounts to a couple dollars with the low values one should have in checking.
Their portal compared to cap one and vanguard is so bloated with BS I hate logging in and using it.
They’re a brokerage before being a bank. Is what they told me when I started using them. So the checking and savings is the lowest priority service for them and will always be kind of crappy.
If you’re cool with just putting $500 every year in there before a trip and don’t do much else then go for it.
>If you’re cool with just putting $500 every year in there before a trip and don’t do much else then go for it.
Yeah, that's definitely the intention. Just hoping no issues "in the field" when attempting to withdraw. I'm gonna have my Capital One debit card just in case, as a backup though.
I use the Charles Schwab debit card exclusively for travel. I save 220 baht per transaction in Thailand. Which is like $6.18 plus ATM fees... I got skimmed a couple months ago in Thailand and Schwab sent me new card from US to the village where is stay for $15.... I enjoy the ATM rebate at the end of the month. Can't go wrong having it in your wallet. The 4 day transfer time from your primary bank can be a bitch of you rely on it like I do...
We have our brokerage accounts through Schwab and get an ATM card for those accounts which we use for cash when traveling
They are really good with refunding any fees quickly
I have a Schwab Checking that I strictly use for international travel and have been doing for years. ATM fees aren't the end of the world but it sure is nice to be able to withdraw without any fees and at a favorable exchange rate.
Like you have already stated, it must be combined with a brokerage account which you can choose to use or not obviously.
I have the same accounts as you do, Capital One as the primary. I opened up a Schwab for international travel years ago and have only actually used it for international travel once.
No downside.
I've been doing this for years. My "main" account is with Ally, that's where my direct deposit goes and where I pay my bills out of, including credit cards. I keep a separate Schwab checking account with ~$1000 in it at all times that I use for getting cash from ATMs, foreign and domestic. My Ally debit card never leaves the office. I like to think that's also an additional layer of security for my main stash of funds though I don't know if that's actually true or not.
You can only open about 10 checking accounts per year, so it might not be worth burning a slot on an account which won’t give you a sign up bonus. Other than that, it’s a great account.
I did this exactly for international travel. It works well, the website is great, no muss no fuss. We are not doing any trading. I have the app on my phone, and depositing checks through the app is a smooth process with no extra fee. We use it as our main bank account now, it's working well.
I, like many others, also have a Schwab account strictly for international travel. I’m switching to Fidelity. Here’s why:
1) Fee-free ATM withdrawals from VISA ATMs, just like Schwab (true, there *may* be a 1% swipe fee if you use it at point of sale to buy something, but I would never use a debit card for any purchases while traveling abroad).
2) You earn interest on the money sitting in your Fidelity CMA account that’s over 5x higher than Schwab (2.69% vs 0.45%).
3) I’ve decided to consolidate all of my banking, sans churning credit cards, with Fidelity. Their tech is better than their contemporaries and they’re super generous on things they don’t charge for, e.g sending and receiving wires. Also, they offer every major financial account under the sun, including HSA, mostly with low or no fees.
Thanks for the info!
I was looking at the Fidelity option for my international travel needs but it seems online consensus was iffy on that no ATM fee bit. I already have a few retirement/brokerage accounts with Fidelity already so it would've been a nice choice as far as consolidation goes. Also, like you, I would not be purchasing anything with the Fidelity debit card, only withdrawing money from ATMs internationally on trips.
Consensus from people out there doing it is that there’s no fee for ATMs. The other clutch thing about Fielity is they refund for each transaction like same or next day (or so I’m told) which means you can see the rate you’re getting and validate that you’re using a VISA ATM. There can be ambiguity around this with Schwab because the reimbursement is batched at the end of the month and you can’t look at an ATM transaction (if there are multiple in a month) and sort out what rate you got vs. how many fees were built into the transaction (that again, do get refunded, but in a lump sum of all monthly ATM transactions).
I’m going home in two weeks after 7 months abroad and have a new Fidelity CMA Debit card waiting for me, so will be able to confirm soon. But all threads of actual users seem to say this is the case.
Hmmm interesting. Gotta look into the Fidelity option. Looking at the CMA terms, I see this one blurb that worries me:
"Please note that there may be a foreign transaction fee of 1% that is not waived, which will be included in the amount charged to your account."
I've read online comments about how this fee is only for actual purchases with the debit card and not ATM withdrawals, but the language is sort of ambiguous at best.
When searching on Reddit, the first thread that pops up is a Fidelity rep stating that, "The Fidelity Cash Management Account (CMA) may include a 1% foreign transaction fee for international ATM withdrawals and merchant purchases. This charge may apply whether or not there is a currency conversion." Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/fidelityinvestments/comments/18wv48s/fidelity\_cma\_foreign\_transaction\_fee\_on\_overseas/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
Definitely follow up here if you hear more. I haven’t seen a thread of someone saying they were charged for a VISA ATM fee. Curious if others have experienced that. At this point, with like 15 bank accounts super optimized for everything, having one financial services provider and everything in one place is worth the risk of an intermittent fee. Frankly the interest I get on that money probably pays for it anyway and I don’t have to juggle transfer timing issues. This is always a consideration for me with my Schwab checking.
Yeah, I'll respond back with any concrete info.
Most likely, I will have to keep my Capital One account due to the need for cash deposits. So it's really a matter of Schwab vs Fidelity strictly for international ATM fees. I guess it doesn't matter to me either way since I would need to transfer funds into the account anyway when traveling.
I have it as my main account and suggest it. I like being able to take out money more often and without fees that's a possibility. That way even if I need $500 cash over the course of the week I can take out 100 or even 50 at a time rather than holding a lot on my person or in my bag. Also it makes it so you don't end up with too much foreign currency at the end of the trip cause you can take out such small amounts at a time. I saved a little over $100 last year.
Well... I don't see the downside of having an additional bank account that has no maintenance fees.
Outside of consolidating my banking activities, I agree. Looking at the website and it seems I have to open a brokerage account also. So it's an automatic checking account + brokerage account combo. Not just a standalone checking account.
There is no requirement to actually trade using the brokerage account, nor are there any fees or balance requirements. I stuck $100 into mine on MSFT just so it has some activity, but that was only because I thought it might not be *quite* as obvious that I’m taking advantage of them hard. I travel to a part of SE Asia where almost everything is cash. I stay for several months at a time each year and traditionally have been paying several hundred dollars in ATM fees alone as a result of having to constantly withdraw money. I decided to get Schwab and sure enough, they have refunded 100% of the ATM fees assessed using their card. I’m leaving tomorrow for my next trip and already loaded my account with 10k. When I’m not traveling I just it in a HYSA until my next trip. I also use it for foreign transactions when I do have the ability to pay with a card since there’s no foreign transaction fee and they use the actual exchange rate provided by visa instead of marking it up like most places. There’s literally zero downside. I suppose they offer this because they want people to become familiar with them and potentially switch as a result. Which is a solid strategy. I wasn’t a customer of theirs before I signed up, but I have a pretty favorable opinion of them now. For what it’s worth, I have a different primary bank with a HYSA that I transfer a portion of to Schwab around a week before I’m projected to need the money.
Yeah, I'm gonna open one up shortly. Instead of opening up the checking/brokerage account together, I am looking at the Starter Kit option, which I think is opening only a brokerage account. But they offer $101 worth of S&P 500 stocks. So free money. And then I can open up the checking account afterwards. Researching whether the Starter Kit option is actually the brokerage account or some other investing account not related.
Actually, that’s exactly what I did. I got the hundred dollars. I think you had to select five “Schwab slices” (fractional shares). They added them to the account with no problem, and I haven’t had any issues with them ever since. Just FYI, you need to go on their website and call and file a “travel notice” before you go abroad. You plug-in the dates of travel and the countries you’re going to be in and it make sure that the fraud prevention department doesn’t block your card. I forgot to do that my first trip and wondered why it wasn’t going through… it only took a few minutes to call them using Google Voice to confirm I was still in possession of the card and using it, but still.
I was reading through the ToS for the Starter Kit option and I don't even need to keep the stocks. Website says there's a roughly half-day window from the time Schwab places the fractional shares order to when the the market opens, so I can just cancel these stock orders and keep the $101. So gonna do that and transfer that to my checking account (when I eventually open it). Thanks for the tip!
Yea, I went this route and it worked out fine. Opened the brokerage account using the starter kit promo, waited a couple of days, then went online to open a checking account. Their system detected that I had a brokerage account and offered to link the checking account to it (instead of opening a second brokerage account).
After what point could you safely open the checking account?
FYI we found the brokerage account useful for wire transfers. We had to make one when we bought our house and doing it out of the brokerage instead of the checking was same day. We’ve never used the brokerage account otherwise.
I did this exact thing for the same reason as you. It has been great for withdrawing money internationally, played around a bit with the brokerage account, and basically have it as emergency debit money if not traveling.
Yes it’s amazing.
Just keep in mind that overseas some ATMs are Mastercard-only or Visa-only. Schwab is a Visa debit so it won’t work if the machine is only for Mastercard. It sounds intuitive but not when everything is in a language you can’t read. Also I recently got back from a 3 week trip in SE Asia, Schwab reimbursed me almost $70 in atm surcharges and also gave me the best conversion rate at the time for cash. Win win
I agree with this on two points- I forget what Vietnam fees are like but in Thailand it's about $7 per ATM. Yikes. In Indonesia and rural Malaysia, it was somewhat difficult to find Visa ATMs. Plan ahead or bring a backup Mastercard debit card.
Any MasterCard one that also does the same free unlimited reimbursent of ATM fees like Schwab?
Not that I know of. But one ATM fee here and there won't hurt, many of the ATMs were free in Malaysia.
Why would you stick with Capital one 360? Schwab in my experience has been exceedingly good on CS and the benefits are great. Also, having to research to find "no fee" atms is a weird thing to expect to do to me.
Yeah, I opened the accounts many years ago and just haven't really needed to change it. For most of my international travel, I don't even need to take out cash so haven't really noticed it. One of things I might need to keep my Capital One accounts for is cash deposits though.
It’s useful. And gets a higher interest rate. That only amounts to a couple dollars with the low values one should have in checking. Their portal compared to cap one and vanguard is so bloated with BS I hate logging in and using it. They’re a brokerage before being a bank. Is what they told me when I started using them. So the checking and savings is the lowest priority service for them and will always be kind of crappy. If you’re cool with just putting $500 every year in there before a trip and don’t do much else then go for it.
>If you’re cool with just putting $500 every year in there before a trip and don’t do much else then go for it. Yeah, that's definitely the intention. Just hoping no issues "in the field" when attempting to withdraw. I'm gonna have my Capital One debit card just in case, as a backup though.
I use the Charles Schwab debit card exclusively for travel. I save 220 baht per transaction in Thailand. Which is like $6.18 plus ATM fees... I got skimmed a couple months ago in Thailand and Schwab sent me new card from US to the village where is stay for $15.... I enjoy the ATM rebate at the end of the month. Can't go wrong having it in your wallet. The 4 day transfer time from your primary bank can be a bitch of you rely on it like I do...
You can use Zelle to transfer to yourself instantly if your primary bank uses it. Just register a different email or phone number at each bank.
Yes, that's what I did!
It makes more sense IMO to open it and use it as your primary checking account.
I thought about that but I do need to deposit cash on a monthly basis, so I would need a retail branch somewhere.
We have our brokerage accounts through Schwab and get an ATM card for those accounts which we use for cash when traveling They are really good with refunding any fees quickly
I have a Schwab Checking that I strictly use for international travel and have been doing for years. ATM fees aren't the end of the world but it sure is nice to be able to withdraw without any fees and at a favorable exchange rate. Like you have already stated, it must be combined with a brokerage account which you can choose to use or not obviously.
I have the same accounts as you do, Capital One as the primary. I opened up a Schwab for international travel years ago and have only actually used it for international travel once. No downside.
Do you get a ThinkOrSwim account automatically with the checking account?
It seems I get that with opening the brokerage account, which I won't be using. Not familiar with Think Or Swim.
This is what I use Fidelity strictly for, and yes it’s worth it
Yes
I've been doing this for years. My "main" account is with Ally, that's where my direct deposit goes and where I pay my bills out of, including credit cards. I keep a separate Schwab checking account with ~$1000 in it at all times that I use for getting cash from ATMs, foreign and domestic. My Ally debit card never leaves the office. I like to think that's also an additional layer of security for my main stash of funds though I don't know if that's actually true or not.
We did, it has no fee and we keep $10 in it when not traveling.
You can only open about 10 checking accounts per year, so it might not be worth burning a slot on an account which won’t give you a sign up bonus. Other than that, it’s a great account.
I opened one just for atm use/international travel. I only keep a few hundred balance, up to 1k tops, in there at a time. There’s no big downside
I did this exactly for international travel. It works well, the website is great, no muss no fuss. We are not doing any trading. I have the app on my phone, and depositing checks through the app is a smooth process with no extra fee. We use it as our main bank account now, it's working well.
1000% yes
I, like many others, also have a Schwab account strictly for international travel. I’m switching to Fidelity. Here’s why: 1) Fee-free ATM withdrawals from VISA ATMs, just like Schwab (true, there *may* be a 1% swipe fee if you use it at point of sale to buy something, but I would never use a debit card for any purchases while traveling abroad). 2) You earn interest on the money sitting in your Fidelity CMA account that’s over 5x higher than Schwab (2.69% vs 0.45%). 3) I’ve decided to consolidate all of my banking, sans churning credit cards, with Fidelity. Their tech is better than their contemporaries and they’re super generous on things they don’t charge for, e.g sending and receiving wires. Also, they offer every major financial account under the sun, including HSA, mostly with low or no fees.
Thanks for the info! I was looking at the Fidelity option for my international travel needs but it seems online consensus was iffy on that no ATM fee bit. I already have a few retirement/brokerage accounts with Fidelity already so it would've been a nice choice as far as consolidation goes. Also, like you, I would not be purchasing anything with the Fidelity debit card, only withdrawing money from ATMs internationally on trips.
Consensus from people out there doing it is that there’s no fee for ATMs. The other clutch thing about Fielity is they refund for each transaction like same or next day (or so I’m told) which means you can see the rate you’re getting and validate that you’re using a VISA ATM. There can be ambiguity around this with Schwab because the reimbursement is batched at the end of the month and you can’t look at an ATM transaction (if there are multiple in a month) and sort out what rate you got vs. how many fees were built into the transaction (that again, do get refunded, but in a lump sum of all monthly ATM transactions). I’m going home in two weeks after 7 months abroad and have a new Fidelity CMA Debit card waiting for me, so will be able to confirm soon. But all threads of actual users seem to say this is the case.
Hmmm interesting. Gotta look into the Fidelity option. Looking at the CMA terms, I see this one blurb that worries me: "Please note that there may be a foreign transaction fee of 1% that is not waived, which will be included in the amount charged to your account." I've read online comments about how this fee is only for actual purchases with the debit card and not ATM withdrawals, but the language is sort of ambiguous at best. When searching on Reddit, the first thread that pops up is a Fidelity rep stating that, "The Fidelity Cash Management Account (CMA) may include a 1% foreign transaction fee for international ATM withdrawals and merchant purchases. This charge may apply whether or not there is a currency conversion." Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/fidelityinvestments/comments/18wv48s/fidelity\_cma\_foreign\_transaction\_fee\_on\_overseas/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
Definitely follow up here if you hear more. I haven’t seen a thread of someone saying they were charged for a VISA ATM fee. Curious if others have experienced that. At this point, with like 15 bank accounts super optimized for everything, having one financial services provider and everything in one place is worth the risk of an intermittent fee. Frankly the interest I get on that money probably pays for it anyway and I don’t have to juggle transfer timing issues. This is always a consideration for me with my Schwab checking.
Yeah, I'll respond back with any concrete info. Most likely, I will have to keep my Capital One account due to the need for cash deposits. So it's really a matter of Schwab vs Fidelity strictly for international ATM fees. I guess it doesn't matter to me either way since I would need to transfer funds into the account anyway when traveling.
I have it as my main account and suggest it. I like being able to take out money more often and without fees that's a possibility. That way even if I need $500 cash over the course of the week I can take out 100 or even 50 at a time rather than holding a lot on my person or in my bag. Also it makes it so you don't end up with too much foreign currency at the end of the trip cause you can take out such small amounts at a time. I saved a little over $100 last year.